The telecommunications and data management industries utilize connective hardware for general building wiring, premises distribution systems, local area networks, and other network applications. The connective hardware known as the 110 Connector Systems has become a standard of the industry because of the reliable gas-tight connection provided by the 110 Insulation Displacement Connector. This miniature quick-connect terminating system is listed or approved by Underwriters Laboratories, the Canadian Standards Association, and the Australian Standards Association. The 110 Connector Systems have gained type approval from such countries as the United Kingdom, Japan, Korea, and others.
The 110 Connector Systems are used to manage the horizontal and main cross-connect administration fields. The main cross-connect is typically located in the equipment room and provides termination and cross-connection of network interface equipment, switching equipment, processor equipment, and backbone (riser or campus) wiring. The horizontal cross-connect is typically located in the telecommunications closet and provides termination and cross-connection of horizontal (to the work area) and backbone wiring. Cross-connects allow for easy administration of routing and rerouting common equipment circuits to various parts of a building or campus. This equipment supports both analog and digital voice transmission, as well as high speed data applications that currently run over unshielded twisted pair cables.
Referring now to FIGS. 1, 2, and 3, the prior art 110 Connector System 10 was designed to have its connector ports 15 arranged in horizontal rows in uniformly spaced conductor termination arrays (index strips). FIG. 1 shows four rows of index strips 14 mounted in a typical wiring block 12. The spaces between these index strips become troughs, and are alternately dedicated as either cable routing troughs 16 or cross-connect wire routing troughs 18.
Unsheathed cable conductors from cables 20 are routed through the cable troughs 16 to their appropriate termination ports in the index strips 14. All cable sheaths stop at the entrance to the cable troughs 16. Each cable trough 16 feeds conductors to the two index strips that form its sides.
Connecting blocks 22, each containing several contact elements 24 in pairs, are placed over the index strips 14 and make electrical connections to the conductors in cables 20. These connecting blocks 22 also form the side walls of the troughs 16 and 18. A designation strip 26 is placed within the cable trough 16, near the top of the connecting blocks 22. This strip 26 extends the full length of the cable trough 16, covering the conductors in cables 20, and allows the cable connector ports 15 to be visibly labeled as an indication of where the other end of the cables are attached. A pair of row marking surfaces 27 are provided to label each row.
Cross-connect wire (not shown) or patchcords 28 are terminated in the ports 25 on the top of the connecting blocks 22. Cross-connect wires, when used, are routed to their appropriate ports 25 through the cross-connect troughs 18 between the cable troughs 16. The connecting blocks 22 form the separator between conductors in cables 20 and cross-connect conductors. When patchcords 28 are used, the cross-connect troughs 18 remain empty.
The 110 patchcords 28 are available now in two versions. The old version is a forward-engaging patchcord 28 that uses a forward-engaging plug 30 as shown in FIG. 1. The patchcord 28 projects outward from the connecting block 22, is routed through ducts 32, backboards 34, and troughs 36 to another connecting block 22, as shown in FIG. 3. The new version patchcord uses a reverse-engaging plug. The reverse-engaging patchcord is further described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,718,604 entitled Patch Cord Connection System issued on Feb. 17, 1998 and is incorporated herein by reference.
The prior art 110 connector system has a conductor termination array 14 with twenty-five pair array termination ports 15, each termination port handling one pair of wires. This would terminate one 25-pair cable using all termination ports, or six 4-pair cables with one termination port left unused. FIG. 1 shows six 4-pair connecting blocks 22 engaging the array 14, leaving one termination port unused, as indicated at 15. The row marking surfaces 27 are located at each end of each row.